People often require aesthetic surgery to the nose in order to obtain a more pleasing appearance. This invention relates to a nasal implant as part of such aesthetic surgery. Successful alteration of the shape of the nose requires a nasal implant that is natural looking and which is not noticeable under the skin when the implant is in place and the healing is completed.
1. Field of the Invention
The field of this invention relates to nasal implant devices and more particularly relates to natural looking implant devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have been prior art implants in the market for some time now. One particular company that has supplied nasal implants is Porex Medical a division of Porex Technologies Corp. of America. Suppliers, such as Porex, offer a wide variety of implant shapes to accommodate the many different shapes and sizes of human noses. All of the prior art implants known to the inventor are made from a soft silicone material. This soft material is natural feeling but suffers from a lack of support near the tip of the implant; and in most instances their shape, particularly at the tip area, contributes to an unnatural look.
All of the prior art devices known to the inventor are defined by, or at least include, essentially straight line portions. For example, when such devices are looked at in a plan view the implant device has straight line sides. At the tip of the nose location for some prior art implants a slightly raised portion to help define the forward bulbous portion of the patient'nose. Other prior art implant do not have the raised portion and instead have a tip to lip return portion at the forward end of the implant. The implant in this latter instance resembles an L in side view with the shorter part of the L being inserted into the columella, that is the area between the tip and the lip.
These and other prior art implants all suffer from the same shortcomings. In general the implants give to the corrected nose an unnatural look. Primarily the unnatural look can be attributed to what is termed a parrot's beak (supra-tip higher than the tip) and secondarily the width of the implant at the upper end is too wide and too straight. Also, in most prior art devices the supra-tip is the same width as the rest of the implant's body so that the implant does not blend well with the patient's overall facial features.
In any event, the resultant of the prior art device is an "operated-on" appearance that is less than satisfactory for the patient and the doctor. These shortcomings are rectified by this invention by the use of hard-grade silicone and the special shape from the upper end to the tip, which shape includes a definite narrowing at the supra-tip region.